Grade: 3rd

07 Nov 2023

Farm Exploration

This program engages students in a hands-on exploration of Greenacres Farm.  We will focus on building age specific skills and apply them to learning about farming practices and the places where we farm.  This is an ideal program for a first time visit to Greenacres or for students to become more familiar with farming.

Ohio Science Standards:

  • K.LS.1: Living things have specific characteristics and traits.
  • 1.ESS.1: The sun is the principal source of energy.
  • 2.LS.1: Living things cause changes on Earth.
  • 3.LS.3: Plants and animals have life cycles that are part of their adaptations for survival in their natural environments.
  • 5.LS.1 Organisms perform a variety of roles in an ecosystem.
  • 7.LS.2 In any particular biome, the number, growth and survival of organisms and populations depend on biotic and abiotic factors. Elements can be organized by properties

Indiana and NGSS Standards:

  • K-ESS3-1.Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.
  • K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool.
  • 1-LS1-1. Use materials to design a solution to a human problem by mimicking how plants and/or animals use their external parts to help them survive, grow, and meet their needs.
  • 2-LS4-1. Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
  • 3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment
  • 4-LS1-1 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes
  • Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
  • 5-LS2-1. Develop a model to describe the movement of matter among plants, animals, decomposers, and the environment.
  • MS-LS1-4 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes. Use argument based on empirical evidence and scientific reasoning to support an explanation for how characteristic animal behaviors and specialized plant structures affect the probability of successful reproduction of animals and plants respectively.
  • MS-LS2-1 Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem. 

Ohio Social Studies Standards (K-8):

  • History – Heritage: Ideas and events from the past have shaped the world as it is today. The actions of individuals and groups have made a difference in the lives of others.
  • Geography – Places and Regions: A place is a location having distinctive characteristics, which give it meaning and character and distinguish it from other locations. A region is an area with one or more common characteristics, which give it a measure of homogeneity and make it different from surrounding areas. Regions and places are human constructs.
  • Economics – Economic Decision Making and Skills: Effective economic decision making requires students to be able to reason logically about key economic issues that affect their lives as consumers, producers, savers, investors and citizens. Economic decision-making and skills engage students in the practice of analyzing costs and benefits, collecting and organizing economic evidence and proposing alternatives to economic problems.
  • Economics- Scarcity: There are not enough resources to produce all the goods and services that people desire.
  • Economics – Production and Consumption: Production is the act of combining natural resources, human resources, capital goods and entrepreneurship to make goods and services. Consumption is the use of goods and services.

    Vocabulary:

    farming, livestock, observation, senses, tools, living, nonliving, adaptations, soil, water, air, energy, produce, habitats, and ecosystems

    01 Mar 2021

    Farm Adaptations

    August-June 

    Come discover how life around the farm has developed to be better suited to the environment it inhabits.  As farmers, we can use these adaptations as tools to help us be successful.  

    Ohio Science Standards:

    • 3.LS.3: Plants and animals have life cycles that are part of their adaptations for survival in their natural environments.

    Indiana and NGSS Standards:

    • 3-LS2-1. Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
    • 3-LS3-1. Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms
    • 3-LS4-2. Use evidence to construct an explanation for how the variations in characteristics among individuals of the same species may provide advantages in surviving, finding mates, and reproducing
    • 3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

    Ohio Social Studies Standards:

    • History – Historical Thinking and Skills: Events in local history can be shown on timelines organized by years, decades and centuries.
    • History – Heritage: Local communities change overtime.
    • Geography – Places and Regions: Daily life is influenced by the agriculture, industry and natural resources in different communities.
    • Geography – Humans Systems: Evidence of positive and negative human modification of the environment can be observed in the local community.
    • Geography – Humans Systems: Systems of transportation and communication move people, products and ideas from place to place.

    Vocabulary:

    Adaptation, life cycle, group survival, inherited, parent, offspring, trait, characteristic

    28 Feb 2021

    Nature Exploration: Wildlife Tracking

    August – June

    This program engages students in a hands-on exploration of Ohio’s natural areas. Students will become nature detectives searching for tracks and signs that are clues about animals’ lives. This is an ideal program for a first time visit to Greenacres or for students to become more comfortable in nature.

    Ohio Science Standards:

    • LS Grade 3: Individuals of the same kind differ in their traits and sometimes the differences give individuals an advantage in surviving and reproducing.
    • SIPA Grade 3-5: Develop and communicate descriptions, models, explanations and predictions.
      SIPA Grade 3-5: Think critically and ask questions about the observations and explanations of others.

    NGSS Standards:

    • 3-LS2-1. Construct an argument that some animals form groups that help members survive.
    • 3-LS3-2. Use evidence to support the explanation that traits can be influenced by the environment

      Video Introduction and Vocabulary:

      sign, scat, track, evidence, adaptation, survival, habitat

      28 Feb 2021

      Natural Resources

      August – June

      Humans have always relied on nature for their everyday needs. Join us as we learn all about the nonliving natural resources at Greenacres. We will observe the unique characteristics of resources such as water, air, rock, soil and energy to discover how they are used by living things.

      Ohio Science Standards:

      • ESS Grade 3: Earth’s nonliving resources have specific properties.
      • ESS Grade 3: Earth’s resources can be used for energy.
      • ESS Grade 3: Some of Earth’s resources are limited.

      NGSS Standards:

      • 3-LS4-4. Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.

      Social Studies Standards:

      • Geography Strand: Places and Regions: Daily life is influenced by the agriculture, industry and natural resources in different communities.
      • Geography Strand: Human Systems: Evidence of positive and negative human modification of the environment can be observed in the local community.
      • Economics Strand: Scarcity: Individuals must make decisions because of the scarcity of resources. Making a decision involves a trade-off.

       

        Poster and Vocabulary:

        living, nonliving, natural resource, observation, soil, water, air